News

Flyers News

Flyers Gain Two, Lose Two

by
Staff Writer
/ Philadelphia Flyers

Voorhees, NJ – It was a good news-bad news day at the Sovereign Bank Flyers Skate Zone, as Sami Kapanen will be back in the lineup on Saturday and Eric Desjardins will return on Tuesday when the Flyers face the Tampa Bay Lightning. Unfortunately, however, Dennis Seidenberg and Brian Savage will be out of the lineup with a broken wrist and a sprained knee, respectively.

The Flyers also got a scare when rookie center Mike Richards fell awkwardly into the boards during the skate and had to leave after jamming his right wrist. Richards, however, saw the doctor and his x-rays came back negative and he is probable for Tuesday6s game.

On Mike Richards:Jim McCrossin: "I just spoke with the doctors, and the X-rays right now are negative. Right now, it's a sprain. Dr. [Bill] DeLong looked at it and said that everything checked out and he's able to play [Tuesday].

"Right now we're anticipating that he can play. If he wakes up and he's in excruciating pain, I'll send him over for a bone scan and that can all change, but at this point, we've got approval that he can play."

On Sami Kapanen:JM: "Sami Kapanen was seen by Dr. Peter DeLuca [Monday] at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. His right shoulder was cleared. However, when we went in to see the doctor, Sami did have some swelling in his left knee from the surgery that he had back in late spring, early summer. He had some fluid taken out of his knee and a cortisone injection in that knee. At this point we are going to hold Sami out of playing until Saturday."

On Eric Desjardins:JM: "Eric Desjardins was seen by doctor Gerri McGuinnes, Ph.D. at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, who conducted his neuro-psyche testing. Following that he was seen by our team physician, Dr. Gary Dorshimer. Dr. Dorshimer cleared him to resume full activity, which means he has been cleared to play [Tuesday]."

On Dennis Seidenberg:JM: "I just spoke with our team hand specialist Dr. Tom Graham. Midway in the third period Dennis took a slash in Pittsburgh. We brought him back here and had him seen by our doctor, and Dr. DeLong wanted to have an x-ray taken. We had that done early [Monday] morning, and it showed that he broke off a (bone) in his right hand. We sent the x-rays down to Dr. Graham and he's going to perform surgery. What it's going to require is just a small pin being placed in there. By pinning it, the time out is going to be about two-to-three weeks."

On Keith Primeau:JM: "He's in the building [Monday]. Over the past couple of days he's been building up his cycling. He's not ready to go back and get tested at this point. Right now, today his head was clear of pressure, and as he would say he's symptom free, which is good. After biking a little bit, he was how can you say it he calls it 'busy eyes.' There may have been a little spinning. He stopped for a couple minutes, went back and finished his bike ride. He was up to 30 minutes today biking.

"What we're looking at now, and Keith will agree with this, is that we're having bigger blocks of time where he's symptom free. So, what does that mean? With head injuries, it doesn't really mean anything. We're just going to take it one day at a time and progress him nice and slow. Tomorrow we're going to get on the light board and start allowing him to do eye-tracking to see if he's able to start doing that. If he's able to do that, it's a plus for us."

On Brian Savage:JM: "He has a grade one MCL sprain of his knee. I'd say a 10-to-14 day (absence) is accurate."